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The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the right to health: is Australia meeting its obligations to Aboriginal peoples?
Author(s) -
Couzos Sophie,
Delaney Thiele Dea
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2007.tb01027.x
Subject(s) - cultural rights , indigenous , covenant , right to health , government (linguistics) , economic growth , mainstream , political science , international covenant on civil and political rights , health care , human rights , law , international human rights law , right to property , economics , ecology , linguistics , philosophy , biology
There is evidence that Australia is not meeting its obligations to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for their right to the “highest attainable standard” of health, required under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Poor access to primary health care for Aboriginal peoples and substantial shortfalls in government spending to address this are in violation of the ICESCR. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ share of the universal health coverage expenditure offered to all Australians is less per person than for other Australians. The failure to monitor the provision of mainstream health services to Aboriginal peoples and inequitable distribution of health facilities and services compound these violations. Equality in health between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians is achievable, but not until the shortfall in health services expenditure for Indigenous Australians is addressed.